Parochial: indeed, it's a typical product of the small Paris-based political-journalistic "microcosm" way of thinking: Paris is a village, after all.

Or course, whoever has written this (there are speculations it could be Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Agriculture in the Sarkozy government) doesn't know jack about domestic German politics. But hey, let's not that get in the way of a good story.

The interesting point here is what this story is telling about the French intelligentsia current state of mind and their obsession about Germany's purported isolationism (that would leave France behind).